Ignoring Jared Is Like Ignoring Baby Organ Trafficking

The people studiously ignoring Planned Parenthood’s baby organ trafficking are eager to tell you about other cases of looking the other way.

One of the insights into human nature found in Jesus’ parable of “the good Samaritan” is how those who didn’t want to help the wounded traveler lying on the road, “passed by on the other side.” They have decided to not help, but they feel obligated to pretend their decision is not so wicked by putting distance between themselves and the wounded man. While there may be other cultural considerations (like cleanliness laws for priests and Levites), it is easy to imagine that they make a point of not even looking at him once they know he is there. Since they aren’t going to help him, they do all they can to avoid him.

I’m sure you have seen the story of Jared Fogle, the former spokesman for the sandwich fast food chain, Subway. Fogle is now going to prison for having sex with young girls and receiving child pornography. It now seems that people in authority at Subway actually were told some of this stuff, and decided to do nothing about it.

A former franchisee alerted an executive in charge of Subway’s advertising in 2008 about her concerns about pitchman Jared Fogle, according to her lawyer.

Cindy Mills exchanged phone numbers with Fogle after they met at an event, said Robert Beasley, a lawyer in Florida who represents Mills. After Fogle began talking about paying for sex with minors, the lawyer said Mills alerted a regional Subway contact in Florida where her stores were based.

Later, he said Mills alerted Jeff Moody, who was in charge of the Subway Franchisee Advertising Fund Trust, which handles the company’s marketing. At the time, Subway’s franchise advertising fund was controlled by franchisees, said Don Sniegowski, editor of Blue MauMau, a site for franchisees. Subway had little say in the fund, but gained control of it in 2010 after a lawsuit, he said.

[…]

Beasley said Mills became comfortable about coming forward after Fogle agreed on Aug. 19 to plead guilty to allegations that he paid for sex with girls as young as 16 and received child pornography. Mills was not immediately available for comment Thursday evening. But according to Beasley:

—Fogle told her about paying for sex with minors on a trip to Thailand, and paying for sex with a 16-year-old he found on Craigslist.

—She offered to show Moody the texts from Fogle, but Moody stopped her and said he didn’t want to hear anymore.

—Moody said he had dealt with similar comments, and reassured Mills that Fogle had met a teacher who would get him on the right track.

“To me, it was confirmation that they knew about it,” Beasley said

So her testimony is that she offered to show Moody the words that Fogle had written, but he would not look at them.

He passed by the road on the other side. He averted his gaze.

Why would he do that? He probably wanted to ignore the perverted, victimizing behavior because the image of Subway would be tarnished by the scandal.

Personally, I don’t think hard-working franchise owners deserve to suffer just because of the actions of Fogle. But it might happen anyway. People have been associating Fogle with Subway for years.

So no one wanted to acknowledge the criminal behavior. They looked away from it.